This Week In The Laboratories Of Democracy

In which we learn what President Walker's administration would be like.

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where Brighton girls are like the moon.

Usually, we leave to its own post the midwest subsidiary of Koch Industries formerly known as the state of Wisconsin. But today we kick off our tour there, courtesy of the administration of Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired to manage what once was the home office of American progressivism. It's time for people to stop learning stuff again.

Researchers in the bureau conduct studies on everything from deer populations and deer health to the spread of invasive species and the threats to endangered species. They have published hundreds of papers that, among many other things, evaluate the removal of phosphorus from Wisconsin lakes, the impact of lakeshore development, how timber cutting might affect breeding birds. They do fish surveys in the spring to help determine the health of the state's fisheries. They monitor air pollution levels and study the potential impact of practices such as frac sand and iron mining.

What do we care how much phosphorus is in our lakes anyway? It's not like we live in them. (Any more.) But there's still more not to know in Wisconsin that it's becoming a full time job for the people in government to keep track of all there is not to know.

A vote on Tuesday by Wisconsin's Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, a three-member panel overseeing an agency that benefits schools and communities in the state, enacted the staff ban on climate change. "It's not a part of our sole mission, which is to make money for our beneficiaries," said State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk, a Republican who sits on the board. "That's what I want our employees working on. That's it. Managing our trust funds."

Let us consider other things that are not a part of this commission's "sole mission." Religion, the Brewers, the traffic that morning, where to go for coffee, where to go for lunch, the Packers, where to go get a few pops on State Street after work, the Badgers (basketball), what everybody's doing this weekend, the Badgers (ice hockey), the death of Otis Redding, the best time of year to hit the Dells, Scott Walker's campaign for president. Presumably, the staff can discuss all of these, but not climate change. I can't wait for President Walker to appoint this clown Secretary of the Treasury. No, hold on. I can wait a long time for that.

Let's skip on down to Kansas, where it's time to knuckle the poors again, because this state re-elected Sam Brownback to be governor, since it takes more than one term to destroy an entire state,and knuckling the poors is the only thing Governor Savonarola can do without fking up.

Sen. Michael O'Donnell, R-Wichita, who carried the bill on the floor, said the intent was to go "back to the 'T' and making sure this is 'temporary.' " Limiting the time a person can receive benefits acts as an incentive to re-enter the workforce, supporters said."Work lifts individuals out of poverty," said Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee. "It lifts individuals out of depression, and it gives them a sense of self-worth."

O'Donnell, who by Senate rules stood for the entirety of the debate, said it was wrong to make assumptions about other lawmakers' reasons for supporting the legislation.

"My grandfather has an eighth-grade education," he said, his voice cracking. "He has a son with a Ph.D. and grandson who's a state senator. And he never got on welfare, because he saw when his mom got on welfare what it did to his family. … That inspired me to know that there's a lot more than government assistance."

Another reason to hope there's an afterlife, so Great Gramma O'Donnell can hit this worthless spalpeen over the head with a jug of poteen.

Let's move west then and see what's happening in Nevada, where some people would very much like to see some Other people not have to waste their time voting.

Republicans aren't just trying to push voter ID. A pair of bills, AB 459 and SB 437, were recently introduced to require that many voters present proof of citizenship or else their registration will be canceled. Requiring people to find documents like their birth certificate in order to vote would discourage huge swaths of potential voters from doing so. Though a similar law in neighboring Arizona was recently struck down by a 7-2 Supreme Court, that didn't stop Nevada Republicans from trying to move ahead with the idea. Finally, the State Senate is considering SB 433, which would impose new restrictions on early voting. Specifically, the bill would mandate that early voting cannot take place on Sundays (a day of high turnout for many predominantly African American churches), as well as before 7am or after 7pm. In the past, early voting in Las Vegas has stayed open until 9pm in the past to accommodate workers.

It's worth exploring some day how much this has to do with the deeply held conservative belief that the mighty Willard Romney was derailed by imaginary "voter fraud" and how much of it is simply the deeply held conservative belief that only white men of property can vote. And once again, we thank John Roberts for bringing us the Day Of Jubilee.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where blog Indigenous Reptile Warden Friedman of the Plains brings us the latest ramblings from Governor Mary Fallin, whose speech about how the federal government had nothing to do with building Oklahoma was our favorite part of the 2012 Republican National Convention.

"I know we can improve. We need to do a better job of educating why health matters," she said. "Sixth worst in smoking rates, billions of public and private dollars going to treat preventable illnesses."

She said there are too many of us behind bars, too much wasted potential and too many lives ending before they should.

"One in every 11 Oklahomans will serve time in prison at some point in their lives," Fallin said. "We must encourage more Oklahomans to continue their education beyond high school. We are too good of a people to continue to be the worst state in the nation when it comes to health outcomes." So when Fallin was asked what's keeping us from being So Much More, she provided a list. What holds us back as a state? Lack of educational attainment, also incarceration, substance abuse, crime and certainly, our health," she said.

So why in the fk is this obvious incompetent still governor? Oh, here's why.

But with a $611 million hole in the state budget, her plan to reverse those curses revolves around personal responsibility. Taking charge of your health, taking charge of your education, staying out of problems with substance abuse, alcoholism, things like that; and a new measurement of state government called Performance Informed Budgeting," she said. Each state agency has set goals, and developed specific ways to measure them. You'll be able to follow their progress online at OK State Stat. If an agency can prove it's turning around health, education or incarceration markers, it stands a good chance of seeing a budget boost. "And then try to tie our funding and programs to what works and not give money to things that don't work, that don't actually change the outcome," Fallin said.

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